Cervical Cancer Vaccine Shows Promise

October 11, 2012

A vaccine against cervical cancer, being developed by Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Blue Bell, produced positive results in a small sample of 18 women who were treated previously for cancerous lesions They were injected with a vaccine made of DNA carrying a genetic code targeted to prompt the body to make a specific kind of T cell. These T cells, in a separate lab test, recognized cells with tumor proteins, and killed them. The researchers say in the journalScience Translational Medicine that this is the first study to show that a DNA vaccine alone produced a high level of immunity in people. "The T cells' ability to recognize and kill those targets in the lab suggests that they would now be able to do this against the women's own cancer cells in their bodies," said co-author David B. Weiner, PhD, professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Weiner's lab pioneered the use of DNA vaccines. "Basically, this is the first paper that we're aware of that demonstrates that a DNA vaccine on its own in humans could produce this quality or magnitude of immunity."